Tuesday night's Bedford County Planning Commission meeting came to a surprise ending when District 2 planning commission member Lynn Barnes announced his resignation. The resignation was effective immediately. Barnes has represented District 2 on the planning commission for seven years.

Barnes cited frustration with the board of supervisors as his reason.

"I think the board [of supervisors] has forced this planning commission into a position of giving in," Barnes said.

Bedford City Council gave its unanimous thumbs up last Tuesday to the voluntary reversion agreement with Bedford County in which the city will become a town.
Several speakers posed a number of questions to council members during a public hearing prior to the vote. Most of the questions centered on taxes and services.

Monday night’s Bedford County Board of Supervisors meeting included a joint public hearing with the planning commission on a large number of zoning map changes that the supervisors are considering. Most of the changes involved correcting the zoning on parcels that are currently split zoned.

The Bedford County Board of Supervisors approved a reversion agreement with the city of Bedford on a 5-0 vote, Monday night, with District 1 Supervisor Bill Thomasson and District 7 Supervisor Tammy Parker abstaining.
Thomasson and Parker were elected last November, two months after the reversion agreement was originally approved.

On a 5-2 vote, Bedford City Council voted last Tuesday to approve an urban archery program to help with deer management in the city.
The city has had a deer management program for several years to help in controlling the deer population. Vehicle accidents involving deer continue to be a problem in the city, according to city officials, though at a decreased rate.

The inmates get fresh air and the chance to contribute back to society.

Bedford County gets cleaner roadsides.
That’s the deal that’s been hatched out between the county and a group of low-risk inmates as the Sheriff’s Office kicked off its Inmate Work Force program last week.
On July 16 the first crew, which uses low-risk inmates to perform needed community work, hit the roads picking up trash from the county’s secondary roads.

Jason Johnson works with incoming freshmen at Virginia Tech as an undergraduate academic adviser. He believes that position makes him uniquely qualified to see just how prepared area students are when they enter college.

Four Bedford City Council incumbents are seeking reelection for what will likely be very short terms—at least as a City Council.
If reversion goes according to schedule, City Council will cease to exist on July 1, 2013 — to be replaced by a Town Council. Councilmen won’t automatically transition to this town council. They will all have to run for seats on the new town council in an election to be held in May 2013 if they want to serve on that elected body.

Zoning was at the center of the Bedford County Board of Supervisors' discussion Monday.
The supervisors spent nearly three hours, Monday evening, discussing the planning commission’s comments on their proposed changes to the county’s zoning ordinance. This was a continuation of a process that they began in June.